HUD rejects emergency contracts for Atlantic City Housing Authority work

Nov 21, 2023

Matt Doherty, new executive director of the Atlantic City Housing Authority, speaks to residents during a meeting at Stanley Holmes Village, in Atlantic City, Wednesday, May 17, 2023.

ATLANTIC CITY — Work on testing gas lines, remediating mold and fighting pest infestations had to stop this week at Stanley Holmes Village and the eight other complexes owned by the Atlantic City Housing Authority.

Contractors were working under emergency contracts, and the authority must now move to awarding regular contracts, new Executive Director Matt Doherty said Friday.

The authority is funded and overseen by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, which wants contracts to be awarded on a nonemergent basis. That process takes longer but assures competitive bidding.

"Those continuing to perform work procured under emergency contracts ... their work has stopped," Doherty said. "We have to go out and properly procure contractors to continue."

Doherty has been on the job about a month, and some of the emergency contracts were negotiated by his predecessor, interim part-time Executive Director John Clarke, who is also the executive director of the New Brunswick Housing Authority and runs the Princeton Housing Authority on an interim basis.

Clarke, who continues as a consultant with the Atlantic City Housing Authority, had put out regular contracts for some work, like bedbug extermination, while those for elevator maintenance and repair predate him. That work will continue, Doherty said.

But work on the gas lines at Stanley Holmes, and on eradicating rodent and roach infestations and mold intrusions, was only put out under emergency contracts, so it must stop until regular contracts can be obtained.

It is unclear why regular contracts were not negotiated for all services at some point in Clarke's tenure, which started in August.

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South Jersey Legal Services is suing the authority over conditions at Stanley Holmes Village and has serious concerns about the work stoppage.

"We do appreciate the new administration's openness in discussing issues with us," said Olga Pomar, Legal Services housing preservation and community development coordinator, of Doherty and Chief Operating Officer Tom Sahlin. "We are hoping they continue to look for better solutions than stopping all work for 60 days or whatever it takes to do the bids."

The authority had replaced leaky gas lines under several buildings and was testing others to determine whether more needed to be replaced, she said.

"The Housing Authority had assured us they were doing daily testing, to make sure no such hazards developed. There is no mechanism now for that to continue," Pomar said.

There are still about a dozen of the complex's 31 buildings where gas lines have not been replaced, she said. That includes Building 1, which is one of the oldest sections, dating to the 1930s.

"I don't understand how that is not an emergency," Pomar said.

She is also concerned the new heating system planned for Stanley Holmes will not be completed by the fall.

"And there are units undergoing some renovation or repair that may be left in uninhabitable conditions if work is stopped midway," Pomar said. "How are those repairs going to get made?"

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Doherty had three major goals for the summer: increase communication with residents, test and replace all problem gas lines, and replace the ancient boilers and underground pipes for heat and hot water with an on-demand tankless system powered by gas.

He had hoped HUD would allow the new heating system to be installed on an emergency basis.

"We ran it up the flagpole for HUD," Doherty said. "HUD said no."

The authority had an inspection report that said the boilers will inevitably fail again.

But the likelihood of a failure is not an emergency, Doherty said of the explanation he got from HUD.

Six of 31 buildings at Stanley Holmes were found to have leaks, and those gas lines have been replaced, Doherty said. Another six buildings were later found to have leaks as well, he said, and those lines were also replaced.

"All the gas leaks have been fixed. (The gas lines) all need to be replaced, but if they are not leaking it is deemed not to be an emergency," Doherty said.

Requests for proposal will be going out soon for regular contracts to handle that work, he said.

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Only one emergency contract is being allowed to continue, he said. That is for eradicating black mold in scattered sites buildings, which are single-family and townhome developments around town.

The city declared an emergency at Stanley Holmes Village in October, when the heating and hot water systems failed, and the authority was unable to continue providing trash pickup and other services.

The heating system has since been stabilized, and the city had provided trash pickup for some time.

REPORTER: Michelle Brunetti Post

609-841-2895

[email protected]

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Staff Writer

In my first job after college got paid to read the New York Times and summarize articles for an early online data base. First reporting job was with The Daily Record in Parsippany. I have also worked in nonprofits, and have been with The Press since 1990.

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